Salt Spring Exchange - Local News, Events and Classifieds

Man’s banishment from Saltspring Island risks setting poor precedent, lawyers warn

Story from the Globe and Mail: A homeless man charged with theft from a grocery store, a dine-and-dash at an inn and assault of an RCMP officer has been banished from Saltspring Island. After a tele-bail hearing on July 17 for the three charges, a judicial justice of the peace told Donovan Seward, 31, to leave the B.C. island and not return until his Aug. 10 circuit court appearance to enter a plea, said RCMP Sergeant George Jenkins of the Saltspring detachment.... Read the full story at the globeandmail.com

Mount Tuam Scottish Tower House

In a 160 acre lot atop Mount Tuam sits this new dwelling. With breathtaking views over the Southern Gulf Islands to the San Juan Islands and Mount Baker beyond, the house is built in the style of a period Scottish tower house, using similar materials and ensuring extraordinary longevity and ease of maintenance. External walls are constructed of very durable metamorphic random rubble ledgestone sourced from Port Renfrew on Vancouver island. All dressings such as quoins, window surrounds, corbels, copestones, etc. are carved from imported yellow sandstone. Seven gargoyles collect rainwater from the roofs and discharge it onto the rock outcrop on which the building perches and the roof itself is clad in Vermont slate with code 6 lead flashings and watergates. Stone is used liberally inside for flooring, wall components, two staircases (one straight and one spiral), fireplaces, balusters and other architectural features. Where rainwater conductors have been used, these …

Calling all Salt Spring Bloggers!

Do you write and keep a blog with stories and content that are specific to Salt Spring? Interested in having your content and site promoted and featured on the Salt Spring Exchange? Here's your chance. We'll be implementing a new service that will pull content from Salt Spring Island focused blogs and sites into the Exchange where we will feature a few stories a day or week depending on what comes in. What you get in return is more exposure for your writing, your work, your businesses, etc. We're calling it the Salt Spring Community Stories Network. Here's how it will work. Content for Traffic We pull the content from your site. We feature the first 200-300 words of any post, then include a link to your site to read more. The benefits for you are increased traffic and viewership and the benefits for the Exchange are that the 15,000+ people who use the site each month get more of a range of content to read about something they love; Salt Spring Island. Our goal…

Video - The White Swans of Salt Spring

Video of our Ganges harbour swans and their cygnets delighting the kids on the dock on Salt Spring Island.

How will you vote in HST referendum?

British Columbians have a very important decision to make. The HST referendum is a chance for you to make a decision that will impact B.C. for years to come. We're taking a poll to learn how Salt Spring will vote in the referendum. Vote below. This is the exact language of the mail in referendum question we will all receive in the mail (someday). To learn more about all aspects of the issue visit HST in BC. [polldaddy poll="5173680"]

CBC One Day on Salt Spring Video

CBC One Day on Salt Spring video by Rob Lowrie About the project 1 Day. 24 Hours. 34 Million Lives. On any ordinary day in Canada, extraordinary things happen. Canadians have remarkable stories to tell. And for the past 75 years, the CBC has enabled us to share those stories with each other. This year, we celebrate this rich heritage with 1 Day, a special CBC/Radio Canada documentary and online project that invites all Canadians to help create a unique 24 hour portrait of Canada, from midnight to 11:59, coast to coast. The two hour documentary, to be filmed on April 30th, 2011, is a joint project – between us and you. For 24 hours, our crews will span the country. We'll follow some of Canada’s most fascinating figures as their day unfolds – from emergency physicians to cops, cultural icons to sports stars. But 1 Day will also draw on videos and photos sent in by Canadians who seize this unique opportunity to provide a glimpse into their lives, their famili…

Driftwood Pick-up Locations - Mail Delivery Strike

Subscribers of the Driftwood Newspaper are advised that the newspaper will not be delivered via the local Post Office today (Wednesday) as they are not accepting any mail for delivery. Please cross reference where you live on the map below and head to one of four pickup points after 1pm today. Please disregard the individual labels, just take a paper. If you live in the pink area, pick up your newspaper at the Ravenstreet Cafe. If you live in the purple area, pick up your newspaper at the Vesuvius Cafe. If you live in the green area, pick up your newspaper at the Driftwood Office. If you live in the blue area, pick up your newspaper at Starbarks. If you live in the yellow area, pick up your newspaper at Patterson's.

Salt Spring Cabin Architecture and Design

Cabins are an integral part of Canadian culture. Spending summers on a dock or in the woods is a rite of passage for our neighbors to the north, who even mark the return of warmer weather with an unofficial but widely celebrated weekend holiday (May Two-Four) to kick off cottage season. On a four-acre site on Salt Spring Island, just southwest of Vancouver, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects crafted a cabin—modest in size yet bold in design—on the site where another cottage once stood. Inside the walls of rammed earth and steel, the 191-square-foot space is a cozy nook warmed by the caramel colors of the cedar on the floor and ceiling, which was milled from salvaged timbers, as well as the heat produced by the wood-burning stove. “The small size creates an intimate, protected refuge within a larger landscape,” architect Tom Kundig says. “It forces you to engage with the bigger landscape yet still provides a sanctuary from the elements.” Read more at Dwell.com:

Linear House (Villa Klaathem) by Patkau Architects

A sixteen acre farm located on Salt Spring Island, an island in the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, the site of this house is bisected from east to west by a long row of mature Douglas fir trees. There is a gentle slope falling across the site from south to north. The south half of the property is an orchard containing a variety of fruit trees; the north half of the property is a hay field. There was an existing cottage on the site which has been sold and relocated to a neighbouring property. The existing barn, garage and studio buildings remain. The new house, called Villa Klaathem by the owners, extends 276 feet in a straight line along the south side of the fir trees. The orchard has been made more regular with the addition of further fruit trees so that the clarity of the juxtaposition of cultural landscape to the south, and natural landscape to the north of the new house is reinforced. Full story and photos at Daily Ic…

You're Not Really a Salt Springer Unless...

“You’re not really a Salt Springer until you have held four jobs simultaneously" Salt Spring Literacy study of the culture of employment on Salt Spring Island. You'Re Not Really a Salt Springer...Final(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

Apple Festival Time-lapse Video

Right now, on a tree on Salt Spring, an apple you will sink your teeth into during the Apple Festival is quietly growing in the sun. Until then, enjoy this time-lapse video of the Apple Festival in Fulford Hall.

How to remove invasive plants

Want to get rid of your invasive plants? Download this 2 page chart to learn proper removal and disposal of common invasive plants on Salt Spring. Click here for PDF Chart

Salt Spring Gathers to Bear Witness with Tribes

Numerous Salt Spring Island residents gathered early this morning to bear witness with the Cowichan Tribes during the removal of remains of at least 5 people in a burial area located in town. Elders from the tribe were on hand with contracted archeological services to remove the remains before new construction begins at the same location. Residents gathered after an appeal went out last evening on the Exchange from Tania Aquila who helped facilitate support for the respectful removal. Here are photos from this morning. Removal is on-going throughout the day. Consider visting town to show your support and consideration.

Elizabeth May wins Saanich-Gulf Islands

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has won her B.C. riding, earning her party's first elected seat in Parliament and unseating a longtime incumbent Conservative. May defeated former cabinet minister Gary Lunn by more than 7,000 votes in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, capturing 46 per cent of the vote share. "Today we proved that Canadians want change in politics," May said during a victory speech from her riding. "I will never shrink from speaking truth to power nor will I embrace the politics of spin. We need hope over fear, we need compassion over competition, we need to recognize that Canadians deserve a government where 308 MPs figure out how to work together. "Whether a majority or a minority, we are 308 MPs and we are elected to serve the people of Canada, not any one political ideology." - CBC News

Poll Poll Poll Vote Party Candidate 07-Apr 23-Apr 3…

Final Federal Election Poll Results

The results are in from our final federal election poll. Elizabeth May's Greens increased their lead by almost 5% over the 3 polls taking most of their support away from the Liberals and NDP. The Greens averaged 80.51% of the vote across all 3 polls. Support for Gary Lunn's Conservatives increased a modest 1% with an average of 6.99%. Support for the Liberal candidate all but disappeared in the last polling round since the all candidates meeting here on Salt Spring. Based on these results, if Salt Spring had its own riding, or accounted for more of the Saanich - Gulf Islands voting base, the voting results on Monday would likely be overwhelmingly for the Greens. That we know of, this is the largest sample of Salt Spring specific election polling that has ever been done. An average of 275 people voted in the 3 polls that we ran over the month of April. The polling system we use permits only one submission per user. We detected no obvious vote fraud based on data analysis in o…

Vote in the Final Federal Election Poll

We’re conducting our final advance online poll for the coming federal election. Take a minute to indicate which party you will vote for on election day. Choose one party listed below and click the ‘Vote’ button. The polling system permits only one submission per user. Voting is open until mid-night on Saturday. Voting results are displayed in real-time after you vote. Which party will get your vote?online survey Thank you to our poll sponsor. Funding for this poll provided by the The Smith Manoeuvre.

The Exchange is Back Up - New Features

The Exchange is now backup after 12 hours offline. With the financial help of our advertisers and community supporters we've been able to implement a number of requested features and enhancements. We've been working on these changes for a number of weeks but are just able to make them all live today. Please let us know if you have any feedback about the changes, or experience any challenges using the new features: Pricing We've reduced the price of our paid listings and commercial sponsorship by 40% Commercial postings listed more than once every 60 days are now only $12+HST Paid listings are now only $12+HST Commercial postings are still free once every 60 days for everyone Design You will notice some slight changes to the design, we tried to keep changes to minimum User Profiles Improved the tools to edit and manage your profile Improved the tools to change and update your password Added in profile fields so you can add your Facebook and Twit…

Federal Election Poll Results - Another Green Landslide

The results are in from our 2nd online federal election poll. While the sample size for the vote was considerably smaller, the final vote percentages are almost statistically unchanged from the first vote a few weeks ago. Based on these poll results, Salt Spring Island is voting Green by a landslide. We'll be conducting one final poll again this coming Thursday to Saturday before the election itself on May 2nd. All candidates were again notified of the poll via Twitter. Poll Poll Poll Vote Party Candidate 07-Apr 23-Apr 30-Apr 02-May Conservatives Gary Lunn 6.83% 6.70% TBD TBD NDP Edith Loring-Kuhanga 8.81% 9.57% TBD TBD Greens Elizabeth May 79.07% 77.99% TBD TBD Liberals Renée Hetherington 5.29% 5.74% TBD TBD Vote Sample Size 454 209 Read the results from our first online poll here. Read the results from our 2nd online poll here. Thank you to…

Vote in our 2nd Federal Election Online Poll

We’re conducting another advance online poll for the coming federal election. Take a minute to indicate which party you will vote for on election day. Choose one party listed below and click the ‘Vote’ button. The polling system permits only one submission per user. Voting is open until mid-night on Saturday. Voting results are displayed in real-time after you vote. Which party will get your vote?customer surveys Read the results from our first online poll here. Thank you to our sponsor. Funding for this poll is provided by the The Smith Manoeuvre.

Federal Election Online Poll Results - Green Landslide

Federal Election Online Poll Results Our first federal election poll is now closed. In the 48 hours the poll was running on the Exchange, approximately 3091 of you visited the site at least once. Of those 3091, 454 of you voted in the poll. Expressed another way, 14% of the people who used the Exchange in that time chose to vote. In real terms, we had a voter turnout of 14%. Here's how the rounded vote broke down: Green Party of Canada - 79% New Democratic Party of Canada - 9% Conservative Party of Canada - 7% Liberal Party of Canada - 5% If the Saanich - Gulf Island riding was being determined solely by Salt Spring Islanders who use the Exchange, the Greens would win in a landslide. Thank you to those that participated. This is the first poll we have conducted. We thought our community would find this valuable. If there appears to be interest, we will conduct the poll again in the days before the election to see if there has been any kind of shift in the camp…